It must be in the blood, this feeling of being drawn to the vast expanse of California coastal blue views. At first I was disappointed that Tatum’s spring break in mid March didn’t align with Clara’s, Finn’s and Bridget’s at the end of March—we had planned to reprise the prior California college trip for these four—but now I’m so glad we had this trip with Tatum and the grandparents alone.
Truth be told, Tatum was understandably most excited about seeing her friends from Wingate Ella and Ainsley. Ella had a sleepover at Thornhill with us, then the girls collected guide friend Ainsley and they stayed a night in Santa Cruz. We got to see them for brunch in fairytale Carmel-by-the-Sea.
As excited as Tatum was to see her friends, I think Doug was to make a new friend in David Black. They bonded over toys: drones and a commercial-sized tv. And the love of good food and wine. In fairness, it was a spectacular situation for technology because a pod (?) of whales was playing just offshore and David captured the gliding and playing using his drone. Close ups on the tv made us feel like we could touch the whales.
It was my great pleasure to see Robin and David, to walk their magical morning walk with them along the creaking coast, to sleep in the Athens-Paris guest room, and learn about starting up start ups. They are already endeared to neighbors, I can tell.
Despite friend fun, college tours were also pretty fun or at least informative. Our first stop, naturally, was to see Justine at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Justine was glowing. She seems so happy there. I could tell by the fact that she tidied and vacuumed her room for us and by her wide smiles and warm hugs. She showed us coffee spots, a favorite building, and the koi pond. She has found or created the right school for herself, for sure.
But Tatum’s heart started to glow like the California sunshine with our stop at UC Santa Barbara. And who could blame her? It was beautiful, buzzing with an eclectic mix of surfer boys in flip flops with shaggy hair and groups of brown-skinned boys with Sikh styles to someone with a white lab coat. The latter was in the marine biology building which we walked through without invitation and learned how science students make jokes on bulletin boards: “What’s the difference between a dog and a marine biologist?”
Tatum also loved UC San Diego, which has a similar vibe, though maybe slightly more chill and less glittery than UCSB. Although it did house the Dr. Seuss library, an excellent selling point.
Pomona College, although vaguely interesting from a family history vantage point, was cold, quiet and dark on our visit, which dropped its star power considerably. We had the unfortunate luck to arrive on a cloudy day during spring break and a power outage. Regardless, the small size and lack of marine biology program render it less likely to make the top ten list anyway. But we did have a lovely lunch in the village, which Tatum much loved.
The answer: One wags a tail and the other tags a whale.
@theterrace 